A GENEROUS TRIBUTE

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 49, 26 February 1916, Page 13

A GENEROUS TRIBUTE

"GOD BLESS OF ANZAC."' ••; ■.'■'•,' ■•

Discussing the evacuation of ■Gallippn Peninsula, the London. "Obserrcri" ssvi: That ground abandoned'\,wa£ crated by blood as good ever ehed in war, nor shall Britain*.a.nd Australia ever cease to..'hold;-.it.- .hlallowetl. The first landing, ; the storming-.of' the first landing, the . etprming" of : the beaches under artillei-y• barbed wire was. a. deed that-..achieved what the Germans had;thought,.impossible. Even that was beatenr in-August, when a contingent from Anzac forceduta way upward. by sheer dint \ of. bayonet and butt-end until they won-the,-..yory top of Sari Batr, and for a. few njijnuteij saw the Narrows beyond. ■ In>all\thii war there will bc.no.momentfm.oredr*-' matic and-intense. • . '•*■ * \ i f;>". Never again will shallow-censors ;.tilk as they did before this struggle iof.'tjk , Boftnesa of modern men, .or theidcgeneracy of modern democracies , with their town-bred populations. As ' we. ' hatva often said, they have-sho.wn.-moro courage and more honour than ■■was ; eVer proved before. In this tljey were all akin. But the rest do not gTudge the. palni to , the Australians and New Zenlandere: They were furious and cool'in. the drive of fight, tremendous and triumphing, in the hand-to-hand grapple,. endleeely i resourceful and helpful in trench and camp, irresistible in high spirits iir.d humour, in comradeship hearty, or. genile at need, loving their friend in .life and death, nor ashamed of-the emotions repressed by a duller habit. They. fought and killed or stood and died as the call or the chance came, they laughed and sang as the mood came, or cursed 'with a wealth and riot of profanity to dumbfound the ribald of other nations, but when it was the padre's hour they were persuaded in religion and >moved to prayer and praise, they remembered what their mothers had taughtHhem; all the dearest and best they- had 1 known far away, and in heaven's sight there was a sounder heart in many a' sinner than ever has beat in many a cold; bosom of the good. ' . If matters had been better'handled, if our own Government , as : a whole 'had faintly realised the priceless importance in thie war of forcing tbe gates of the East, or had come to aiiy''common mind once for all when the decision to.attack was taken, not withdrawal, but 'Constantinople would have" been the end. But Australians and New' Zealanders* only change their"ground in this' war to fight again, and next time they must have a chance that will come" to another issue. One homely word; rieee "to the lip 3of all of ue in V ;We say, God bless the men of Anzac, living and dead, for their part in the 'dcatMjwe ipic of tlie Dardanelles- ■-~'•